While the exact contribution of various drivers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been a topic of discussion (Aiello et al., 2017, Zheng et al., 2015), more recent data support the importance of a switch from an epithelial phenotype—characterized by E-CADHERIN staining—to a more mesenchymal, VIMENTIN-positive appearance of the cancer cells in driving PDAC metastasis (Krebs et al., 2017). Here, CDH17 is linked to cancer.